You ordered a bottle with dinner and half of it is still in the ice bucket. Can it come home with you? In most of the country the answer depends on your state's alcohol law, and the states that allow it tend to attach the same handful of conditions. Florida's statute is a clear, current example of what those conditions look like, and knowing them saves an awkward moment at the end of the meal.

What Florida requires

Florida law lets a licensed restaurant allow a guest to take one partly finished bottle of wine off the premises, but only when all of these are true:

  • It came with a meal. The guest bought a meal and drank part of the bottle at the restaurant.
  • The restaurant reseals it. The licensee or a staff member has to reseal the bottle securely before it leaves. Corking it yourself at the table does not count.
  • It goes in a tamper-evident bag. The bottle is placed in a bag or container sealed so that it is visibly obvious if anyone opens it.
  • The receipt goes with it. The restaurant provides a dated receipt for the wine and the meal, attached to the bag.
  • It rides in the right place. In a car, the bag goes in a locked glove compartment, a locked trunk, or, in a vehicle with no trunk, the area behind the last upright seat.

Why the rules look like this

Each condition exists to separate a bottle that is being carried home from an open container in a car. The seal and the bag show that nobody has been drinking from it since it left the table, the receipt shows where it came from and when, and the storage rule keeps it out of reach of the driver.

How to ask

  • Ask your server before the check comes. The staff has to do the resealing and bagging, so give them time.
  • Keep the receipt on the bag. Do not take it off in the car.
  • Put it in the trunk. Even where the law allows a glove compartment, the trunk keeps it out of the cabin entirely.
  • Plan the ride home. A bottle going home in the trunk is fine; whoever is driving should be the one who skipped the wine.

Rules differ from state to state, so a restaurant in one state may answer differently from one across the line. If you are unsure, your state's alcohol beverage control agency publishes the rule, and the restaurant's manager will know how it applies to them.

Sources